Murphysboro, IL - Murphysboro's death increased again today when the recovery of bodies and deaths of injured brought the total to 180.  Despite the growing death toll and predictions that it would be still further increased, the atmosphere changed suddenly from one surcharged with tension, fear and stick plodding to one of the fair equanimity.  The change was manifested in the attitude of relief workers, national guard officers and the townspeople themselves who, after accustomed after three days to the tangled wreckage which letters virtually the entire city and the veritable wilderness where 1,000 residences stood, joked over narrow escapes and freaks of the whimsical wind.

Through it all, however, there was no let up to alleviate the sufferings of the approximate 700 injured, 300 of whom still were in a serious condition and the nearly 4000 homeless.  Enough doctors and nurses were in the Murphysboro area to take care of the situation - desperate though it was, and the 108th Medical Regiment from Chicago was held at Carbondale today as there was no need for it here. There was no excess of relief supplies however, and a constant stream of victims, many of whom possessed nothing but the clothing on their backs with much of it in rags, passed through relief stations, obtaining at one place an order for necessary clothing and at another food tickets.

Medicine, dressings, clothing and food was coming in by the car load but those directing the work of relief had no fear that quantities they needed would be available.  Most of the debris was cleared from the main streets today, but many blocks remained so badly clogged with fallen poles, roofs, uprooted trees, twisted wires and the other litter that once had made beautiful residence districts divided by tree-lined streets that even foot passage was slow and tedious.  The feared death list in rural communities hereabouts had failed to develop tonight but a few deaths are being reported from the territory surrounding Murphysboro. The path of the storm as it tore through the rural districts was no less severe than that recorded in the urban sections. Farm houses, barns, sheds, hay stacks, trees and growing crops were flattened but for some reason, possibly best explained by the comparatively flimsy structures, the frenzied wind failed to add deaths to its toll of destruction in any appreciable proportion.

Scouts sent out from Murphysboro to review the rural condition reported some suffering but added only three deaths and since they were in the immediate vicinity of this city, they were attached to Murphysboro's list.

Gorham, IL -- Twenty nine bodies remained here to be buried today, twenty-two were sent to St. Louis and an unknown number to Cairo, the record of Gorham's toll to last Wednesday's tornado. Fifteen to twenty persons are in a few of the homes which remained standing after the twister had passed.  Such is the count of J.P. GLENN, acting city clerk, the only person here who has kept a tally of the death amidst the scene of devastation hardly expressed by that phase.

Of the eighty houses originally in the village of more than 500 inhabitants, only twenty houses stand and not one of them escaped damage.  GLENN indicated his belief that the original number, 67, fixed as the loss of life here was not an exaggeration.

The basement of the school house was the only place left for a temporary morgue. The super-structure of the school building was entirely carried away, but the first floor was left to serve as a roof above the dead.  Between Gorham and Murphysboro, eighteen miles to the east, the country side presents a scene of utter devastation.  Visible from the road was the wreckage of more than a score of farm houses, barns and other buildings, and more than 50 farm homes and their complements seriously damaged.

The tornado, as it twisted its angry way through the rural section, cut a swath from 200 yards to ½ mile wide in which no trees remained erect, and in which farm animals were strewn about.  Farmers and their families were prodding the ruins of their homes for precious belongings.  Death seemed not to have stepped heavily, however, despite the scenes of confusion left in the twister's wake. It seemed that the comparatively flimsy construction of the farm houses in itself provided salvation in that, easily swept away, they were not driven in on their occupants.

The SCHOFIELD farm, a show place just outside Sandridge, was blown away flat.  Eighteen box cars were wrecked in Gorham, and the Missouri Pacific railroad station was wrecked, Ernest SWARTZ, Cashier of the First National Bank, heard the approach of the tornado, grabbed the money and records and rushed into the vault. Just as he closed the door the building caved in. Only one $20 bill was lost.  SWARTZ said that after the storm he picked up all the silver money he had been unable to clutch in his dash to safety.  The day previous, SWARTZ had talked about a storm with his mother, and had told her that he would follow the course he did if one should approach. She warned him not to go into the vault, because of the possibility of his being killed by a poison gas protection devise.  Today she said she was "tickled pink" because her son disregarded her advice.

Fire did not follow the tornado as it did at Murphysboro, where it added to the horror of the situation. Only one house was burned here, but in it three persons were incinerated.  The damage was estimated here at $150,000.  A serious food shortage developed here today, although relief forthcoming immediately when the Red Cross shipped in a carload of food.  "It took us twenty-five years to build this town to what it was" said Mr. GLENN, "and now in one instant it has been wiped out."

Gorham's death list from the tornado includes two entire families, one of three members and the other made up of a mother and four grown children.  The list as established by J.P. GLEN, the only man to keep even a partial list of the casualties, follows:

ASBURY, Murray
BARTON, Charles
BEAN, R.
BROWN, Margaret
CASEY, Bertha
CRAIN, Reuben and wife Ollie
CRANE, sister of CRAIN
CROSS, Della, Gerald
DUNN, Joe Robert
FONCREE, William
GALE, Lawrence
GORDON, Charles
INCHCLIFF, Sally
JOHNSON, Dick
MOSCHENROSE, Mrs. Mary; Louise; Edward and Andrew
NEEDHAM, baby;
NEEDHAM, Lafayette
REEDER, Nancy and Gus
ROSENBERGER, Opal
STAMP, Frances
THORMURE, George
WHITE, Kitty

Twelve of Gorham's 65-70 victims were buried today The precise number of victims whose life was snuffed out by a whimsical fate probably will never be known for in the devastation and confusion, only one man kept a list and that admittedly incomplete. It showed 29 bodies here, 22 sent to St. Louis and an unknown number forwarded to Cairo, Illinois. Only about 15 injured persons remained here.

The serious cases were sent to St. Louis and Cairo. Gorham, the first town hit in Illinois as the whirling fury leaped the Mississippi River, after its onslaught on Annapolis, Mo., suffered tremendously. Or its approximately 80 buildings, 60 were destroyed, and of the remaining 20, not one escaped unscathed.

Gorham spurned all outside aid, although a food shortage threatened until the Red Cross sent a carload of food. "Gorham will fight its own battles," said B.B. EASLEY, chief storekeeper of the town. "There is a food shortage, but we can not let that get to the outside world."
 

Submitted by Carla Pulliam

Back to Main Tornado page
Back To Featured Subjects
To Main Page